Responsible Energy

There are three plays in the Arctic Ocean Commons, oil, heavy gas and methane-hydrates, or light gas. Typically in the Outer Arctic circle the three are often found loosely stacked together. Elsewhere in the world oil companies are finding that the pressure of deeper water also tends to make for bigger pools of hydrocarbons, thus improving the potential economic viability of the Arctic Abyssal.

Many geologists view the Arctic Ocean Commons region as well endowed with petroleum resources. There are massive beds of ”azolla“, biosiliceous and organic carbon-rich sediments found in numerous areas in the high northern latitudes of the Arctic Ocean. Oil ands Gas prospectivity is considered to be low risk due to the obvious recently discovered gas seeps, oil shows in cores, as well as the abundance of large fold and fault structures that could trap oil and gas. Parts of the area are full of very complex structures that create numerous potential traps.

"The principal driver for the perception of the high potential in the Arctic Ocean Commons is the observation that large areas share many of the key geological elements that contributed to the creation of the large accumulations near Prudhoe Bay in Alaska.  Key source and reservoir formations extend offshore and are found in settings favorable for generating and capturing Petroleum."

It is widely known that enormous methane and methane hydrate is accumulated and continually released on the Continental shelf areas of the Arctic and in the Arctic Abyssal. It is only recently that oil and gas companies are considering giving the area closer attention for its obvious super-giant commercial energy resources potential. 

Temperatures that hydrocarbon source rocks reach when they become buried deep underground impact oil and gas production.

When source rocks heat up during burial oil tends to form when temperatures reach a certain point. Higher temperatures at deeper burial depths can then crack the oil to produce natural gas. This is may or may not be the case in the Arctic Commons Deeps.  Methane gas migrating upwards into freezing sands then gets compressed into methane hydrates. Thus three separate hydrocarbon resources can often be found and often will eventually be developed.

The petroleum generating kerogens in source rocks tend to favor gas production in situations where the rocks were laid down on or near land. In rocks laid down in marine environments, the kerogens tend to favor oil production.

There is an excellent potential for the development of a number of supergiant fields, the large size of which will more than compensate for the extreme weather conditions and remote location. The probable lack of overly burdensome government lease entry imposts also makes the Arctic Commons potentially very attractive financially.